Truth

It is not up to us [including me] to establish and define truth, only to seek it. It is only up to us to remove the blocks that obscure awareness. The only thing we can definitely say about Truth is that Truth is, and its conditions bring with it perfect peace.

There are many who are afraid of choosing a pathway because they believe that they all lead in different directions [Postmodern relativism]. Yet there is really only one "direction" of truth. That of expansion. It helps to see truth as a more inclusive context [see below] or as an expansion of truth (into Truth). And radical Truth is beyond all dualistic concepts.

            Listen to your intuition, and double check with reason. Intuition is different from our emotions, yet it filters through our emotions. It is helpful to ask a question and without trying to answer the question, just holding it in the back of our mind, listen for the answer. Does the answer feel right?

            "Those who remember always that they know nothing, and who have come willing to learn everything, will learn it. But when ever they trust themselves [ego], they will not learn. They have destroyed their motivation for learning by thinking they already know. Think not that you understand anything until you pass the test of perfect peace, for peace and understanding go together and never can be found alone. Each brings the other with it, for it is the law of God they be not separate. They are cause and effect, each to the other, so where one is absent the other cannot be. Only those who recognize they cannot know unless the effects of understanding are with them, can really learn at all."  --ACIM

            It also helps to clarify the difference between content and context.

            "Content is the arbitrary point of focus as is the amount of data or form that is included. Context is the totality of all that is excluded, with implied or specified boundaries, or even with none at all, such as God or the entire universe.

            For example, one could select a specific star (star "A"). Then the rest of the galaxy or the entire firmament, including its evolution over time, becomes the context which includes the observer. If another star is then selected for observation (star "B"), then star ‘A' becomes included in the total context of star ‘B'. Thus content and context are not separate distinctions nor are they intrinsic qualities but instead reflect eh consciousness of the observer.

            Thus the terms ‘linear' and ‘nonlinear' are categories of thought and points of intellectual reference. Form includes the formless as its substrate and is not separate from it. Consciousness as such is equally present but the information registered in awareness would be a consequence of focus.

            In the transcendent state, all is continuous and nominalization or denotation are of appearance only as nothing is actually separate. All is self-evident and self-effulgent, which cannot be adequately described in language. The ‘Dance of Shiva' is experiential and not conceptual.

            In the ordinary state of consciousness, the ‘I' of the ego/self/me is content, whereas consciousness/God/Self is context. Unstated context often has more influence over the outcome than does visible content."       --David R. Hawkins    Ph.D.

            From the above description then, content is a locus of awareness, and a new contextual boundary can be drawn around it, and the context of one object becomes the content of another.

            The nature of reality can be termed holonic (i.e. comprised of holons), depending on where one draws the content line. Whereas post-modernism often pits one different context against another, Integral theory honors and includes the various "types" of truths: Individual worldview/intentional (subjective), Behavioral/Exterior (objective), Cultural (inter-subjective) and Social Systems/Environment (inter-objective). Moreover it posits that there exists different validity claims for each domain. Truthfulness (subjective), Truth (objective), Justness (inter-subjective), and Functional fit (inter-objective).          

             It recognizes that while each context is valid and necessary, when each domain claims that "it" is the sole criterion or determinant for truth, then Integral theory then points out that it is being exclusive...it is being partial.

Let us not be partial.

Conflicts in understanding are resolved upon finding the larger context.